Irving Berlin´s life in connection with the american dream

Essay by KEBOOHigh School, 12th grade May 2004

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1. Foreword

When I heard the song "White Christmas" and discerned that this song is performed by so many famous artists I questioned myself who wrote that apparently timeless song. When I got the answer that it was Irving Berlin who wrote and composed this song I gleaned that he was one of the most successful songwirters in America and had dominated the music professesion for more than thirty years. In the following pages I want you to get an overview of his career and to point out what exactly makes his songs timeless .To illustrate this aspect of timelessness I will analyse two of his most popular songs to find out the allurement of them. The third aspect of my work is to ascertain in what way Irving Berlin fullfilled American Dream and how and under what conditions he wrote his songs.

2. Irving Berlin

2.1 Irving Berlin´s life and his career as a songwriter

Israel Bailin was born on May 11, 1888 and lived as the youngest boy of eight siblings and his parents in Sibirea, Russia.

His exact birthplace is still unknown. The jewish family had to emigrate out of Russia because of the reestablished policy of anti-Semitism by the new Czar. When Israel was 5 years old he and his family traveled to America. There they lived as one family of more than one-half million immigrants in a small tentment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York. Although it was an extreme change from life in Russia, Israel soon began to accommodate into the way of American life and earned some money among his schooldays. As a singing newspaper boy and by helping his father singing in the synagogue he discerned that his voice was more valuable in earning money than his other...